Avoiding pieces of tobacco to come into your mouth while smoking
- Thread starter mrmachado
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To avoid it in the first place, put large pieces in first, smaller ones on top. If that fails, see above.
If I'm using a pipe with wide drilling, I stick a pipe cleaner through it before I pack the bowl, then do as jpmcwjr says. The pipe cleaner keeps your draught hole clear while you pack and, when you pull it out, allows for some oxygen to be present down there which will help your ember stay alive with less chance of needing to stir things up at the tail end of your smoke.
It happens so rarely, and I mean very rarely, who cares? Spit it out, move on. If it is happening too frequently for you, it likely means you're packing too loosely.
That's one of the issues with more open draw pipes. Finer tobacco cuts just suck right up into and through the airway. I don't have the issue with my older Britwood.
When a bit of tobacco works its way though the airway and into my mouth I just spit it out.
When a bit of tobacco works its way though the airway and into my mouth I just spit it out.
What actually bothers me is when I'm smoking around the end of the bowl and a piece of ember comes into my mouth.
I think I will stop smoking that far down and simply discard the remaining tobacco, must be the only way to prevent that from happening.
I think I will stop smoking that far down and simply discard the remaining tobacco, must be the only way to prevent that from happening.
Either stop smoking that far down and/or make sure it is tamped down a bit more. The other thing to do is draw more gently near the end of the bowl to avoid sucking the ash and embers into your mouth.
Good move. There are some who believe that it's absolutely necessary to burn every last shred of leaf in the bowl. Then there are those who actually know how to smoke a pipe. They know that the last few strands needn't be smoked and that, over time, your pipe will be in better shape if you don't try to burn every last little thread. Leave a little bit behind for the angels.
+1 to Sable
My cobs do this quite often if I don't stop too far before the end of the bowl. Mostly because there's still more tobacco to burn down below the bottom of the draft hole.
I've gotten enough experience by now to learn when the end is near on a bowl and when I should stop. Typically the smoke gets hotter, doesn't taste quite as good and I have to relight more often because the tobacco near the bottom of the bowl has collected a lot of moisture.
It's for the best to just stop before it gets to that point. Your mouth and your pipe will thank you.
My cobs do this quite often if I don't stop too far before the end of the bowl. Mostly because there's still more tobacco to burn down below the bottom of the draft hole.
I've gotten enough experience by now to learn when the end is near on a bowl and when I should stop. Typically the smoke gets hotter, doesn't taste quite as good and I have to relight more often because the tobacco near the bottom of the bowl has collected a lot of moisture.
It's for the best to just stop before it gets to that point. Your mouth and your pipe will thank you.
I smoke mostly bents, so it rarely happens. It NEVER happens with my Petersen and Savinelli System pipes. You should really try one of these!
You may be drawing way too hard. If, in your other post, you're burning out pipes in short order, and here you are sucking in embers, I think you might evaluate your draw.
A "sip" is a roughly half-to-one second, mild intake using no more pressure than the minimum it takes to pull a beverage through a straw.
Forget any notion you may have of big bellows of smoke. Work on puffing in gently and just enough to barely keep the thing lit. If you are successful at this, you will discover all of the great, intricate flavors others are experiencing and you will fart rainbows.
May the Force be with you...
A "sip" is a roughly half-to-one second, mild intake using no more pressure than the minimum it takes to pull a beverage through a straw.
Forget any notion you may have of big bellows of smoke. Work on puffing in gently and just enough to barely keep the thing lit. If you are successful at this, you will discover all of the great, intricate flavors others are experiencing and you will fart rainbows.
May the Force be with you...
O
U
C
H
E
R
S
!!
I no longer feel bad about all the dottle and uncombusted, still light brown pieces of toby I've dumped from so many bowls. Heck, any residual tongue bite I mighta had from yesterday's smoke just vanished upon picturing an ember touching the tongue. 8O
A lot of spitters here, but there must be some swallowers.
The best defense is a good offense: don't put little bits in the first load.
The best defense is a good offense: don't put little bits in the first load.
As others have said in other threads, you are way over thinking things and it sounds like you're driving yourself crazy trying to become an experienced pipe smoker overnight. It's not going to work like that, you'll learn as you go and most importantly, you'll learn what works for you, not what works for somebody else. If you are smoking it down to where you're sucking up embers in your mouth, well the best thing I can suggest is, stop doing that! Just follow some common sense and you'll get there, there are not two pipes smokers that smoke alike, there is a common saying, it goes something like this, "Ask 5 different pipe smokers a question, you'll get 6 different answers". I may have butchered that but ya get the drift.
First pieces of tobacco now, embers in the mouth. In fifty plus years I've never experienced sucking an ember into my mouth. Any such should surely cool in the stem sufficiently not to burn, I'd think. How hard are you having to draw for crying out loud?
When you tamp, spin/twist your tamper/finger a bit as you push gently into the ash, that'll help "nest" the tobacco, keep it from being too loose. The first bit of tobacco I scoop into the bowl I tamp with my finger, twisting a bit as I press it into place. I tamp it a bit tighter than the next scoop. Perhaps that'll help.
You really do seem to be trying too hard to get to some sort of level of expertise you imagine some of us have maybe achieved. Just relax, stuff a bowl, light it and try to enjoy it. It'll all come together in a fairly short period of time if you just go easy and enjoy the pipe. After you learn to enjoy a bowl you can work on some of the minutia some of the guys here practice. Or, you may discover you just like a bowl of tobacco now and then.
It is not a contest between you and the pipe. Just smoke for the joy of smoking, the relationship between you, the pipe and the tobacco.
When you tamp, spin/twist your tamper/finger a bit as you push gently into the ash, that'll help "nest" the tobacco, keep it from being too loose. The first bit of tobacco I scoop into the bowl I tamp with my finger, twisting a bit as I press it into place. I tamp it a bit tighter than the next scoop. Perhaps that'll help.
You really do seem to be trying too hard to get to some sort of level of expertise you imagine some of us have maybe achieved. Just relax, stuff a bowl, light it and try to enjoy it. It'll all come together in a fairly short period of time if you just go easy and enjoy the pipe. After you learn to enjoy a bowl you can work on some of the minutia some of the guys here practice. Or, you may discover you just like a bowl of tobacco now and then.
It is not a contest between you and the pipe. Just smoke for the joy of smoking, the relationship between you, the pipe and the tobacco.
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